The Case of Merlin Emrys
by Totally-Out-Of-It
Summary: Arlin Merthur Arthur/Merlin Slash AU Tragedy has struck. Merlin Emrys is dead. Arthur Pendragon is the prime suspect, but did he really do it? It's up to two detectives to solve the crime before it's too late.
1. Prolog

**The Case of Merlin Emrys**

_Cop show AU Arlin Merlin Emrys has been murdered and every finger is pointing at Arthur Pendragon. Did he really kill Merlin, or is there a mysterious murderer hiding in Camelot City? Can Morgause, Myror, Morgana, or Arthur figure out who the killer is before they strike again?_

_-  
_

* * *

A man in a tattered brown jacket, brown pants with holes all over, and a faded gray-blue shirt hobbled down the beach with nothing but his sandals, which were falling apart, to protect his feet from the rocks scattered underfoot. Up ahead was a myriad of different sized rocks, all broken down and scattered by the wind and water. All the rivers in the nearby area, especially the one that ran through the center of the city, emptied here. So did all the sewage, so the place smelled sort of bad and looked nasty so no one ever came here.

Except this man. This man came here once a week to search for valuables that the more fortunate people of the city of Camelot accidently dropped in the rivers or flushed down the drains. It all washed downstream and got caught on the rocks that littered the place where the river and the ocean met. Typically he found earrings, paper money, light bracelets and necklaces, coins, and more. He'd even found a driver's license, a Wal-Mart gift card, and a credit card here once. Random trash was caught around the rocks at the end of the river as well, but none of it was worth hawking for cash, so he left it where it fell.

"Ooh," he let out upon seeing a bracelet made of what appeared to be sterling silver with little crystals in it at points. "That'll do good."

He traipsed over to the bracelet and knelt to pick it up. With a simple brush of his hand, mud and algae fell off the bracelet and let it shine in the sunlight. The man grinned and turned to look for more little gems like this one and froze.

A man. There was a man amongst the rocks.

-

-

"Myror!" a woman called out across the beach.

The black man glanced over to her beyond the police tape that barricaded the area off from the public – not that anyone would come down to this stink pile. "Ah, Morgause," he greeted with a small smile showing off his canines. "You find anything yet?"

Morgause nodded and brushed her hair out of her eyes to look at the file she'd brought with her. Police were examining the area for anything with a possible relation to the John Doe that a homeless man named Tauren had found.

"I looked for all reports of missing persons in the last two weeks and found this," she turned the file around and showed the picture to her partner. The photo was of a male with short, dark hair and mousy ears. He was smiling like a loon and Myror could tell the image had been cropped so that only the man was in the picture and not his friends. He was most definitely the boy found in the rocks. "His name is Merlin Emrys. He went missing nine days ago."

"That sounds about right. Time of death was noted as being approximately a week ago. We were lucky he wasn't actually in the water," Myror commented. "Who reported him missing?"

"His friend, Guinevere Leodegan. They were both enrolled at Camelot University."

-

-

Guinevere walked down the halls of her college with a gentle smile on her face. Her best friend in the whole world, Morgana, was at her side so she could keep smiling. But her smile was only half there because her other friend was not at her side.

"Guinevere Leodegan?" a woman asked and Guinevere stopped walking just before she ran right into the two cops standing in the middle of the hall.

"Um, yes," she answered with a tiny nod. "But most people call me Gwen."

"Gwen," Morgause amended. "We need you to come with us downtown."

"What?"

"Why?" Morgana demanded hotly. She was sort of like Gwen's protector.

Morgause looked at Morgana and gave a tiny sigh. "We need to ask her a few questions about the day Merlin Emrys disappeared," she informed her secret half-sister calmly.

Morgana seemed to shrink back a bit but kept her face disapproving. "What for? She reported him missing. She's done nothing wrong."

"No," Myror agreed. "We don't think she has."

"Then why do you want Gwen?" Morgana demanded yet again. Gwen stayed quiet, knowing that when Morgana wanted to act the protector that there was really nothing she could do to stop her.

"We need you to tell us everything you know about the day Merlin disappeared," Morgause explained gently. This girl was a friend of her sister's, so she could try to be gentle with the news.

"Wh-….Do you have a lead? Do you know where he is?" Gwen asked hopefully, her eyes lighting up.

Morgause's frown deepened. "We know where he is, yes."

"Where?"

"In the morgue," Myror said bluntly, giving both girls a straight stare. "He's dead."

Morgause turned her head a bit when she heard a low thud and barely caught sight of the blond man literally throwing himself around the corner and out of view from where he'd fallen into the wall not a moment before.

'Hmm………,' she wondered idly.

"Gwen!" Morgana cried out, reaching out and grabbing the slightly smaller woman as she fainted.

'Mmhmm.'

* * *

-

So, how was it? Like it? Hate it? Any comments would be highly appreciated! So please review! Reviews get things updated and let writers know they're doing well.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

…_10 days since disappearance…_

Morgause lifted a paper from her desk to view the one below it, and then set it back down just as Myror sat in the seat across from her and looked at her over the desk.

"Find anything?" Morgause asked listlessly. Myror nodded.

"According to almost every teacher this Merlin guy's had in his four years at this college, the guy was a saint. He never got into trouble in class, had near perfect attendance, and was one of the top students at the school. But he was a loner too." Morgause gave him a curious look. "According to the teachers and every student I talked to, Merlin was regarded as the outcast of the school. He had three friends: Guinevere Leodegan, Morgana Pendragon, and Lancelot DuLac. According to them, and half the school, the only people who generally got into arguments or fights with Merlin were the upper class students. The one everyone pointed me to was Morgana's own brother, Arthur Pendragon."

"So we're to investigate the son of the police chief," Morgause commented almost dryly. A tiny grin flashed briefly across her face. "Brilliant."

-

-

Arthur wore a loose, faded blue shirt, a brown leather jacket that didn't close, and dark blue jeans. He was muscled, he was blonde, he had blue eyes. He was a "stud muffin" – so claimed a student named Sophia. Now, sitting across from Morgause and Myror, he looked unfocused and kept spinning the gold ring on his right ring finger absently.

Myror dropped Merlin's file on the table as loudly as he could and Arthur's eyes snapped in to focus on the two cops across from him at the table.

"So, Arthur," Myror began, opening the file to the first page and the picture of Merlin that had been on file with the missing person's report. "Tell us what you know about Merlin Emrys."

Arthur stared right at them as he spoke. His voice was flat. "He was an outcast, the guy who never fit in in school and never will." He glanced away, fiddled with the ring on his right hand, and then looked back at Morgause and Myror.

"That's all?" Morgause asked, her voice implying that he was hiding something.

Arthur sighed. "Look, I may have picked on Merlin, but I'd never kill him."

"And why not?" Myror asked. "I have statements from twenty-three of your teachers and classmates that say you were always talking bad about him and trying to goad him into a fight." He turned the pages of the file until Arthur saw a list of teachers he'd had in the past and people he knew. "Maybe he finally fought back and you fought and fought until you killed him."

Arthur glared at Myror intensely. "I would _never_," he hissed out. "Merlin saved my _life_. You think I'd kill someone like that?"

"What do you mean, he saved your life?" Morgause broke in. Arthur's eyes snapped to hers and he softened his look a bit.

"Back in freshman year of high school, Merlin was everybody's punching bag. He was a pacifist, so everyone knew they could do whatever the hell they liked and he'd never fight back. They did it because Merlin claimed he could feel things."

"Feel things?" Myror asked, leaning a bit closer. Arthur nodded but refused to look at the dark man.

"He said he could feel when something bad was going to happen, or something good. He would tell people at school to watch out on their way home, or to avoid the elevators at the school, and stuff like that. He couldn't tell you why, just that it 'felt bad.' It made him a target." Arthur spun the ring on his finger as he continued. "So one day, my friend Cedric tells me him and a bunch of guys from class are going partying tonight and he wants me to come. I say yes. After school, we're all packing into his car when Merlin runs up, out of breath and bent over on the ground, and tells me not to get in the car. He said if I got in the car I would be in danger."

"I thought he was a loon at the time. I think I flushed his head and threw him in dumpsters more often than I blinked. So I went to get in the car and all of a sudden he's holding my jacket like it's the only thing keeping him grounded and begs me, _begs me_, not to get in the car." Arthur shook his head a bit and let out a breath that was almost a laugh and focused his eyes on the table. "I didn't go." His eyes drifted back up to meet Morgause's. "Turns out, Cedric's car got hit by a semi whose driver fell asleep at the wheel. Everybody died." Arthur shrugged. "Merlin saved my life." His eyes slipped back down to the table and focused on the picture of Merlin there and he turned his ring a bit more.

"Nervous habit?" Myror pointed at the ring and Arthur stopped spinning it and looked down at the ring himself like he'd forgotten it was there.

Lifting his eyes back to Myror's and giving a charming smile, Arthur said, "Not in the least. Never done it before in my life." He kept his left index finger and thumb on the ring on his right ring finger, but never spun it again.

"So," Morgause asked after a long pause. "When was the last time you saw Merlin?"

"Friday at school," Arthur stated simply. Myror opened his mouth and Arthur spoke, "I was at work all afternoon, and then I went home. Alone. I don't have the best alibi, I know, but I didn't kill him."

Morgause noted the way Arthur's voice shifted on the word 'kill' but kindly ignored it. "If you didn't kill Merlin Emrys, then who did?"

Arthur shrugged. He shut his eyes for a moment and then they shot open again. "Actually, and this is probably the longest shot anyone's ever taken, but Cedric's dad….I got called in back in ninth because everyone thought I'd known about the semi and had let it happen, which is stupid by the way. Well I told the cops that I only didn't go because Merlin told me not to, because he felt it. Cedric's dad, Cornelius, overheard me and said he'd get even with Merlin if it killed him." He shook his head. "But that was….eight years ago now almost."

"Revenge knows no bounds," Myror murmured and stood up. "Thank you for your time. We'll call you if we have any more questions."

"Alright," Arthur agreed. "Lemme know what you find." He gave them both pointed looks that held ulterior, but not harmful, motives and shook their hands before he was released.

-

-

…_.11 days since disappearance…._

A twitchy man hurried through the building, up the elevator, and into Morgause's office just as she was standing up from her desk.

"Morgause," he called in a raspy voice. She looked up at him emotionlessly. "I brought the autopsy results."

"Thank you, Jonas. I'll take that." She grabbed it from his outstretched hand as she walked past him and out to the car where Myror was waiting.

-

-

The house they came to in the search for Cornelius Sigan was quaint but large and open. Sculptures were all over the yard along the sides of the house but the front yard was overgrown. It was like two different houses were put together: a nicely kept house with statuary all over and a house that no one had lived in for years.

Morgause pushed right through the tall grass of the yard while Myror tried moving it out of his way as he followed her. She got to the front door, waited until Myror was up there with her, and then knocked. Myror was trying to brush the grass off his shirt and Morgause gave him an exasperated look.

"You're a man," she whispered harshly. "Deal with it. It's just grass."

The front door opened abruptly and both investigators turned quickly to face the man in the doorway. "Who is it? What do you want?" he asked grumpily.

He had black hair that dangled down greasily to his shoulders and was slowly turning grey. His face was a bit sunken in with a salt and pepper mustache that hid his top lip from view. He looked like the walking dead.

"Excuse us," Morgause greeted him. "I'm Detective La Fey, and this is Detective Lester. Are you Cornelius Sigan?" He nodded jerkily. "We'd like to talk to you about Merlin Emrys."

"Who?" Cornelius asked, then gasped. "Oh yea, that snot nosed brat my son went to school with. What about him?"

"He's dead sir," Myror explained. "We'd like you to tell us anything you know about the day he disappeared, about eleven days ago."

"Eleven days a…..sir, I haven't left this house in six years. How should I know what happened eleven _days_ ago?" he asked snidely.

"Six years?" Morgause repeated.

"Yes. Six years. Now leave me alone. I have a statue to finish," he grumbled and shut the door in their faces.

"Are you telling me that he carved all the statues around the house?" Myror asked after a moment.

Morgause gave a minute shrug. "I suppose. He was covered in clay dust…didn't you notice?" she asked with a tint of smugness to her voice. Myror glowered and simply followed her off the porch and back through the grass to the car. "We'll keep an eye on him anyway, see if he's telling the truth about being a hermit."

"Now where do we look?" Myror asked as he started up the car. Morgause opened the autopsy report Jonas had handed her and ran her eyes up and down the page super fast.

"Well, according to the autopsy report, Merlin's body was dumped in the river and floated down to the rocks and onto shore. He wasn't dumped in the rocks. He was also dead before he hit the water." She narrowed her eyes at the print before her. "There seems to be a bit of confusion because….the cause of death is uncertain. His injuries insinuate that he was hit by a car, but also that he may have been bludgeoned to death with something sharp and pointed."

"So he was beaten to death….and was in a car wreck?" Myror asked. "I can't wait to figure this one out."

Morgause nodded absently and sat reading more of the report while Myror drove back to the office. A minute later she shut the file and stared out the front window of the car. "Myror, go check the river. Walk from the ocean, upstream. See if you can find where the body was dumped."

"And what are you going to do?" he asked suspiciously.

Morgause rolled her eyes. "I'm making a house call." There was a brief pause where she realized Myror was still confused. "I'm going to his mother's house to see what I can find out there."

Myror pulled to a stop outside the office and let Morgause get out. She would drive her own car to Ealdor and back. Just before she shut the door, Morgause gave Myror an encouraging look.

"You can check Merlin's house when you're done with the river, if you'd like. Or I'll do it when I get back."

"I'll do it," Myror assured her with a grin. Then she shut the door and headed for her own car.

-

-

Myror sighed as he walked. He'd been walking for five miles now, with no sign of foul play on this side of the river. He had men searching the other side and they'd offered him some help too, but Myror had the best eyes of anyone on staff and he didn't need any assistance. But at the moment he was beginning to hate his job. The river ran through the whole city, well over twenty miles. He couldn't possibly search all of that today, and if he waited until tomorrow the evidence could be gone. Heck, it could be gone already!

He stopped abruptly and stared at the ground five feet in front of him. Blood. There was a patch of blood in the grass. He pulled out his walkie talkie. "This is Detective Lester on the east side of the river. I've found something. I need someone over here to take a kit down to forensics."

A moment later the affirmative came and he bent down and opened his kit next to the blood. Myror lifted the camera around his neck and took several different snap shots of the blood pool and noted how he thought the body had lain. Then he pulled on a pair of gloves and took some of the grass with blood on it and some samples without the grass and put them both in the kit. He followed the blood patch and looked up. The river was pretty much in a large ditch, with hills on both sides leading up to the street. On this side of the river, on the grassy hill leading up to the street, Myror saw crunched down grass and traces of blood.

"Hit by a car…," he murmured to himself and quickly scaled the short hill to the sidewalk at the top.

There were black tire tracks skidding over the sidewalk in a 'v' shape. The car came up onto the sidewalk, and turned as it pulled back off. Myror knelt down and opened his kit again to take a sample of what appeared to be blood on the edge of the sidewalk closest to the river. He also noted the glass and plastic fragments and….red paint chips flaked across the sidewalk. He pulled the camera up again and documented his findings in picture and lead and then collected the evidence in their own individual baggies.

As he heard some of his teammates coming closer, Myror glanced out over the road and saw what could have been glass and plastic shards out across the road, no doubt having fallen off the car after it pulled away and drove off. But it seemed they'd been run over a few times and were in minute pieces by now.

-

-

Morgause parked her car, and was about to get out when her cell phone rang. Checking the caller ID she answered with a swift, "La Fey here. What'd you find, Myror?"

"_Blood, and lots of it,"_ Myror said confidently. _"Our perp is obviously a novice if they didn't even try to clean up the mess they made. We're lucky it hasn't rained between then and now or it may have all washed away….Anyway. I found blood next to the river about six miles from where the body finally settled. Up the embankment I found shards of plastic, glass, paint chips, and tire tracks from the car that hit him."_

"So we're certain it was a car then?" Morgause clarified.

Myror let out an affirmative noise. _"Yea. And this wasn't a side swipe. This person was aiming for the vic. The plastic is from a headlight busting open, and the glass is most likely from a side mirror. We weren't able to trace the tire tracks to any specific car model, but we know it was red and has probably been taken in for repairs recently to cover up the damage. I've already called in for a list of all the red cars to go to repair shops in the past two weeks from every repair shop in the city."_

"Good job, Lester," Morgause congratulated in a slightly teasing way. "I've just arrived outside the mother's house, so I'll talk to you more later. Bye."

"_Bye."_

Morgause snapped her phone shut and stuck it in her bag before slipping out of the car and walking up the little pathway to the front door of Merlin's mother's house. She was about to knock on the door when a voice called out to her, rather rudely too.

"Copper!"

Morgause turned to her right to see a man wearing baggy, khaki pants and no shirt but a full fur coat and trail standing on the porch next door. She noted a thin, spider web like scar that went from his forehead, down through his right eye, to his chin and his almost fully gray beard. He looked vulgar and Morgause held back a grimace, if only for appearances. "Yes?"

"You here to finally take care of the blaspheming bastard son of hers now?" he sneered.

Morgause ignored him fully and turned back to the door. She knocked four times in rapid succession and then waited. About thirty seconds later, a sweet looking middle aged woman answered the door. Her hair was just beginning to gray and still held most of its light brown color. Her eyes were blue and she looked a bit tired but generally happy. In her hands was a dish towel, indicating that she'd just been doing housework.

"Hello there," she greeted upon seeing the officer on her doorstep. "Can I help you?"

Morgause took a deep breath. She didn't want to hurt this woman, but she was going to. "Hunith Emrys?"

"Yes."

"I'm here concerning your son, Merlin Emrys."

Hunith looked confused and a bit concerned at that. "Really? Well…what's happened? Is he in trouble or something?"

Morgause paused for a moment and closed her eyes as she took another breath and let it out again, quietly. Then she opened her eyes again and said, softly, "I'm afraid he's dead, ma'am."

Hunith froze and all color left her face. "What?" she breathed out.

"His body was found two days ago, on Mountain Beach. He'd been dead for more than a week." Morgause shook her head slightly. "I'm so sorry."

Hunith stood shock still for a few more moments and then collapsed to the ground, holding the door frame for support, with tears cascading down her cheeks. Morgause knelt next to her and placed a hand on Hunith's shoulder. "My….," she gasped out and let out a short, loud sob. "My baby boy…"

"Hey." Morgause and Hunith both looked up and saw a boy, Merlin's age, standing just off the porch looking scandalized. "What's going on?"

"Will…," Hunith gasped out and reached out to him. Will hurried up the two steps to the porch and knelt next to Hunith so she could pull him into a hug. "Oh William….," Hunith sobbed out as she clutched him tightly for dear life.

-

-

Myror parked outside a quaint little house just outside of the slums of Camelot. It looked cozy. He walked swiftly to the front door and rapped his knuckles against it a few times. Moments later, an old man with white hair wearing a brown jacket and pants with a blue shirt and a funny eyebrow opened the door.

"Oh, hello," he greeted sullenly. "Come on in."

Myror had phoned in advanced saying he'd be by to look through Merlin's things and find out why someone would kill him. His uncle, a man named Gaius, had immediately accepted and told him to come over as soon as he wanted.

"The one at the end is Merlin's," Gaius told him, pointing down a short hallway with three doors. If he had to guess, Myror would say one was Merlin's room, one was Gaius's room, and one was the toilet.

"Thank you. I'll yell if I need anything," he told the old man before opening Merlin's bedroom door and shuffling inside.

It was smaller than he'd expected. Maybe ten feet by ten feet. Most of the room was taken up by Merlin's bed and a desk with a laptop on it. Merlin's school things were scattered across his bed, indicating he'd been studying at some point. The room was clean: all the dirty clothes were in a hamper hanging on the back of the bedroom door, all the clean clothes were put away, any gadgets he had or toys were where they belonged.

"How does someone like this get into Camelot University?" Myror wondered softly to himself. He shrugged. "Must be a scholarship student."

He went through Merlin's school things but found nothing more than notes for some science and math classes. He checked the pockets of the jeans in the dirty clothes hamper and found three pennies and a receipt for a place he'd never heard of called Classic Café for a $7.15 sandwich dated two weeks ago. There was a photo album under the bed but Myror only looked at the first few pages once he realized they were all of Merlin's mother and his hometown of Ealdor. On the desk, he reached for the laptop but stopped short. Under the computer was a black notebook. He moved the computer and lifted the notebook.

'A Catalog of All Feelings' was written on the front of the pure black book in white out. Myror opened the book and began to read.

-

-

"How?"

"All evidence points to a car crash," Morgause said simply.

Hunith glanced up with a little frown. "My boy never drove anywhere. How-"

"No, I'm sorry." Morgause shook her head. "What I meant was…someone hit him with a car, purposefully, and then dumped his body in White River."

"So he was murdered," William snapped as he came out of the kitchen with a cup of warm tea for Hunith to drink. She was a wreck, but understandably so. "You're tellin' me my best mate was murdered."

Morgause nodded. "We're still investigating, though. We're not sure who-"

"It's that bastard Pendragon!" Will shouted without warning, startling Morgause into silence.

"Will," Hunith tried quietly, sounding as tired as time itself, and Will shut up and watched her. Hunith gave him a disapproving look and then lifted her eyes to see Morgause. "I don't understand why anyone would hurt my boy…He tried to be nice to everyone….He was so nice…" She lifted the tea to her lips as more tears began to fall and sipped it lightly. "Good tea."

Morgause looked at the mantel over the small fireplace and pointed at one of Merlin at Christmas time. "When was this taken?" she asked, hoping to cheer the woman up just a tad.

Hunith gave a little smile. "Two years ago," she said softly. "He was twenty years old, and so proud of it…" She stood up, bringing her tea with her, and gently touched the picture with a shaking hand. "He…He always came home for Christmas, and Spring Break…and any time he had off at all…" Tears were slipping down her face again. "He bought me this angel necklace," she said, indicating the silver angel around her neck. "I bought him that shirt, and the chain for the ring around his neck." He wore a nice, button down black shirt and black dress slacks with a gold chain holding a gold ring around his neck. "He was always so kind to me….he always thought of everyone else first…"

Morgause waited a moment. "Well, that's what his friends and teachers said too, that he was a nice kid. But, like his friend here," she nodded to Will as Hunith made her way back to the coffee table, "everyone who knew him in Camelot thinks Arthur Pendragon's behind it."

Glass shattered when Hunith's grip slipped and the tea cup hit the table below. "Oh!" she gasped, jumping back as Will quickly grabbed a towel and began soaking up the tea and collecting the shards. Hunith made sure Will was alright before looking back at Morgause. "That's ridiculous, detective," she said in response to her statement. "I don't think Arthur would ever do something so vile. He's a nice boy too."

Morgause was about to question how Hunith knew Arthur Pendragon when Will scowled and forcefully threw the shards of tea cup into the garbage can. "He bloody well could have done it!" He turned his scowl on the two ladies now. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"Will!" Hunith exclaimed disapprovingly. "He would never, and you know it!"

"Excuse me," Morgause interjected, "but why do you believe he would never kill Merlin?"

Hunith seemed shocked that Morgause was still there and took a moment to collect herself. Then she gave a slightly sheepish smile. "I think you should ask that of Arthur."

Morgause left the Emrys house that afternoon with a bit more information than she arrived with, and wondered just what the connection was between Arthur, Merlin, Will, and Hunith. She was driving back to the interstate highway when her phone rang. It was Myror Lester.

"La Fey here."

"_So I got a list of all the red cars brought in in the past two weeks, right? Well guess what_?" Myror challenged her.

"Just tell me, Myror," Morgause demanded with no heat. "I just finished telling a mother her only son is dead. I'm not really in the mood."

"_You sound tired," _Myror commented dryly. _"But whatever. The point is, five red cars were taken in for repairs since Merlin Emrys's disappearance, and only one of them for damage to a headlight and rearview mirror. And the best part? It belongs to the one and only Arthur Pendragon."_

Morgause narrowed her eyes. "I'll look into that myself. Merlin's mother seems adamant that Arthur Pendragon would never hurt her son."

"_His mother _knows _Arthur Pendragron?"_ Myror asked, his shock clear in his voice.

"I know. I'm looking into that too. I'll talk more when I'm back in town."

"_Alright. See you then. I found something interesting in a journal in the guy's room, but I'll tell you about it later. Bye"_

They both hung up and Morgause pulled onto the interstate. Four hours and she'd be back in Camelot.

* * *

-

Reviews give me life. So please please please review! Let me know what you like and didn't like!


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

**ShadowSmudge:** Morgause explains it a bit in her head later, but it's a secret from everyone, and not because they're keeping it that way. It's more that no one knows and no one thinks to ask because they don't look alike. They're sisters that were separated as kids and….yea…Morgause'll talk about it. If you're still confused after her explanation, just ask.

Also, the man with the spidery scar is Kanan, the man who attacked Ealdor in the show. I know I didn't really describe him well, but he's a minor minor minor character. Completely unimportant to the story. Uther is Arthur's father, but he's also minor minor minor. He only shows up in the last scene. He's really just mentioned in Morgause's head because his son is a suspect so he's not allowed to work the case.

**Makodreamafar: **That was...um...interesting....I realize why it happened, so it's alright. Just post your review for last chapter this chapter. Anyone who read the reviews before reading this got a bit of a spoiler though....oh well.

-

* * *

-

Morgause didn't sleep much that night. She stayed up until four reading every detail in Merlin's 'A Catalog of All Feelings' journal. First, Merlin would write down a feeling he'd gotten and what he thought it meant: where and when the bad thing would happen. He noted every time the feeling got worse or lessened and any new information he felt or saw in his head that related to the feeling. Then, at the end of each section, he wrote down what the actual bad feeling was, the actual act and the precise details of the act: when, who, where, how bad, and how accurate he had been.

It was fascinating, really. The further into the journal she read, the more accurate his 'feelings' became. It was….It was like he was becoming more powerful or something. It was like it was all real. A real paranormal activity happening in her own backyard. Myror had told her it was all a bunch of 'hocus pocus stuff' but that the last few pages seemed relevant.

In a note dated almost two months ago, Merlin had written _"Today was terrible. I was in the middle of tutoring Gwen for her Trigonometry class when I nearly fainted the feeling was so strong. It was Arthur. Something terrible involving Arthur is going to happen soon. I don't know what, but I know I'll stop it, no matter what it is."_

Two days later he'd written, _"I saw Arthur at school today with Vivian Moffett. Just as I was thinking about how clingy she is to a man who isn't her boyfriend, that same feeling of total desolation relating to Arthur hit me. I actually fell out of my chair. This feeling physically hurts. Arthur is in danger."_

Morgause stopped there for a moment. Arthur? She blinked forcefully and shook her head a tiny bit to clear it and continued reading. From that day, every two or three days, Merlin noted that feeling coming on stronger and stronger. Three weeks ago, only four days before he went missing, Merlin's notes changed.

_"I had a dream last night about the terrible feeling about Arthur. It was dark outside and I saw Arthur's house. I could see Arthur at his desk by his bedroom window. There was a gun. I'm not sure what kind of gun. I might look into that later. I think Arthur's going to be shot in his house."_

Morgause didn't catch the rest of the notes because she fell asleep after that, now wondering and dreaming about how Arthur could fit into everything. He was the prime suspect, his car was most likely the murder weapon, and yet Merlin had written that it was _Arthur_ who was in danger….

-

-

…_.12 days since disappearance…._

Morgause woke up to a phone call and thinking maybe she should put Arthur under surveillance. She rubbed her eyes and grabbed the phone from her bedside table and hit 'enter.' "Hello?"

"_Morgause?"_ Morgana's voice asked incredulously. _"It's ten twenty-three. Why are you still in bed?"_

Morgause shot awake and looked at the clock. "Sorry," she apologized, her voice carrying no note of sleep to it any more. "I was up late last night working on the Emrys case. What do you need sis?"

"_You asked me to check around school with the students I knew to see if they noticed anything odd that Friday, right?"_ she prompted.

Morgause sat up and flicked on the light on her bedside table. The journal slid off the bed onto the floor and she inwardly cursed before she picked it up and set it on the bed next to her. "Yea."

She'd asked Morgana to do some undercover work at the school for her. Morgana was the adoptive daughter of Uther Pendragon, Arthur's adoptive sister, so she was part of the rich clique at the Camelot college by default even though she hung out with the poorer students who only went to school there on scholarship. So Morgana was the perfect person to get the inside scoop on the situation.

"_Well, I asked the rich snobs and, as I thought, they were completely useless on this front. All they kept talking about was how stupid it all was and who cared if some poor rat died and ha ha wasn't it funny the way Gwen fainted on Monday?"_ Morgana mocked with a bit of acid in her voice. _"Honestly, you would think they didn't know she's my best friend."_

Morgause grinned a little. "I'm sure they're just ignorant. But did you find anything useful?"

"_Oh, right."_ Morgana let out a puff of air on her side of the phone. _"Well, I asked Gwen about it in Trig just now and she told me that Merlin wasn't sleeping the week he went missing."_

"Wasn't sleeping?"

"_Yea. And Lancelot, Gwen's boyfriend and Merlin's best friend, told me this morning that Merlin seemed frightened."_

"Frightened? Did he know what Merlin was frightened of? Who?" Morgause asked as she changed into an almost casual grey suit for work.

"_The rich chicks,"_ Morgana scoffed. _"Apparently, on Wednesday and Thursday, Merlin jumped every time they came in a room and kept sending them worried looks."_

"Good work, Morgana. You'll make an excellent law enforcer, whatever job you take," she praised. "Now, who exactly was he worried about, did this Lancelot say?"

"_Oh. Sophia Grainger and Vivian Moffett. I assume they'll be brought in for questioning sometime today?"_ Morgana ventured.

"As soon as they're out of cl…..wait a minute, Morgana. Aren't _you_ supposed to be in class?" Morgause asked suspiciously.

Morgause felt her sister tense even over the phone, and then calm. _"No. I have break until ten thirty."_

The detective checked the clock on her side table. "Then you've got three minutes. Best hurry. Bye." And she shut the phone before Morgana could say anything else. After she'd brushed her teeth and hair and was walking out the door, Morgana pulled her cell phone out of her bag and called Myror. "Lester, I've got a lead."

"_You do?"_ he asked, a bit shocked.

"Yea. A girl at Merlin's school said Merlin hadn't been sleeping and Merlin's best friend said he was scared of the two richest girls in school: Sophia Grainger and Vivian Moffett. Call the school and find out when they get out of class. We need to bring them in for questioning," she told her partner.

"_Sure thing. Oh, did you read the journal?"_

Morgause nodded. "Yea, most of it. I'll finish the rest of it when we're done with the girls."

"_Where are you right now?"_ Myror asked.

Morgause closed the door to her car and sat her bag in the passenger seat. "I'm on my way to ask Mr. Pendragon about his mysteriously wrecked car." She smirked. "I'll see you in the office."

"Yea. See ya."

They both hung up and Morgause drove to Camelot University. Once parked, she walked into a building that read 'Student Center' on the side and glanced around. Almost immediately, she saw Arthur Pendragon sitting across the room surrounded by other students with name brand clothes and bags. Even just sitting there, every one of them looked supercilious. Arthur's head lifted back a bit as he laughed at something another of the students had said and he caught sight of Morgause standing by the door. She motioned with her head to follow and then walked back outside and a few feet left of the door. Only moments later, Arthur was outside with her, hidden from the view of the door by a small tree and some bushes.

"Detective La Fey," he greeted, his voice deep and calming instead of aloof and annoyed. She could tell why he was popular. "Did you learn anything new?"

She regarded him curiously, remembering how Merlin had written about how Arthur was the one in danger, not him. After a few moments, she opened her mouth and said, "We found out he was hit head on by a car on Dackling Road. A red car, to be precise."

Arthur looked a bit confused. "But…I live on Dackling Road." Something about this new information caused Arthur's face to look a bit pained. "He was killed near my house."

"Actually, he probably died down the White River embankment near your house, but that's not why I'm here." Morgause kept her face and voice blank while she spoke to him. He would give her all the clues she needed himself.

"Then…why?" he asked, schooling his face back into one of someone who didn't care.

She locked eyes with him. "You own a red Mazda MX-5, correct?" Arthur nodded and seemed to be trying to figure out where she was going with this before she got there. "As I said, Merlin was hit by a red car. According to evidence found at the scene, the car was badly damaged. There were pieces of a headlight and side rear view mirror. When we looked at car repair shops, we found that only one red car was brought in within the past two weeks with a broken headlight and mirror. Yours."

Arthur's mouth fell open and all color left his face. "But….I swear to you detective, I didn't do it…," he breathed out. "I didn't hit anyone with my car. That's not why…" He ran a hand over his face and appeared to regain control of his emotions with the motion.

"If you didn't hit Merlin with your car, then how was it damaged?" Morgause asked evenly.

Arthur shook his head and glanced at the parking lot next to the Student Center, where his red Mazda MX-5 was parked. He just stared for a few moments before he finally answered. "About a week ago, the Friday after Merlin went missing, I went out driving. I was out all night, just driving, and finally found myself at a bar, where I drank until I couldn't see straight. I fell asleep at the bar and when I woke up, I went out and got in my car to go home. I was halfway there when another car swerved into my lane on a straight road. I veered off the street to avoid them and hit a telephone poll and a newspaper stand." He landed a hard stare on Morgause. "The poll took off my side mirror and the stand busted my headlight. I went to the hospital after that, in an ambulance, because my father, your boss, is paranoid."

"What bar?"

Arthur shrugged. "I don't know. I just saw the word 'beer' in the window and parked. And I was too drunk after that to care." He shook his head a bit. "I know it doesn't help my case that I don't pay attention to things like that, but I swear I'm telling you the truth, detective."

Morgause just stared at him for a bit. He looked calm but his eyes seemed to be screaming at her to believe him. She'd never met someone with eyes that expressive before, and this was the son of her almost emotionless boss, Uther. "I'll check the hospital records and try to verify your story," she conceded at length and Arthur's stance relaxed minutely. She moved to leave and then stopped. "Oh. Another thing."

Arthur tilted his head ever so slightly to the right. She almost smiled at how endearing that made him look, but kept her face straight if only for the subject at hand.

"Merlin had a journal. It was a record of all the feelings you said he had, the ones about things like muggings and car crashes," she started and Arthur nodded tersely. "The last few pages are littered with a recurring feeling he had concerning you. It was something terrible." Arthur seemed to stand straighter at that. "Has anything happened to you recently, Arthur? Anything…out of the ordinary?"

Arthur glanced away for a moment, thinking, and Morgause saw his right thumb start fiddling with the ring on his right ring finger. She narrowed her eyes a bit at his hand but cleared her expression when Arthur looked back at her. "No," he answered with a slight shrug. "Not that I can remember."

Morgause gave a nod. "Alright. That's all I have, then. I'll contact you again if I have any more questions."

With that, she turned away and headed back towards her car. Arthur watched her go before turning and walking back into the student center.

-

-

About thirty minutes after Morgause sat down at her desk, Jonas came bursting in with one of his creepy grins. His hair was thin and dark, his ears were large, and his face was long and a bit gaunt. Add to that a crooked smile that pulled to the right and Morgause was a bit creeped out.

"What, Jonas?" she asked blandly, looking down at the files open on her desk.

She was going through the statements given by Merlin's current and past professors. Alvarr, Aredian, Valiant, and Edwin all seemed to dislike Merlin, but they had all said only good things about him. Given that Morgause was now pointedly searching for something to clear Arthur's name, she was looking back at these men to see if maybe there was something that would give them a motive to kill.

"I found out what killed Merlin Emrys," he announced softly, almost conspiratorially.

Morgause looked at him sharply. "You what? I thought we decided it was a car that killed him."

Jonas shrugged. "Well, yes, technically it was the car that killed him. He would've died anyway, but remember how he had all those wounds from some unknown object?"

"Yea," Morgause nodded. "Your report said it was something with a pointed end. Why? You know what it was?"

Jonas snickered and held out a manila folder to the dark detective. "A shoe," he said in between snickers. "The wounds were made by the toe of a pair of women's dress shoes. Probably of the high heeled variety," he offered smugly.

Morgause skimmed through the file while he spoke, then said, "So it was a woman. Probably hit him with the car and then, realizing he wasn't dead yet, kicked him until he stopped breathing. That was the smartest thing she did though. Her car left traces all over, but her shoe…." Morgause smirked. "Lucky for me, we've got two ladies being brought in today for questioning. In fact-," she paused when her phone rang. "Hello," she greeted when she had the phone to her ear.

"_Sophia Grainger's here,"_ Myror said. _"Best get over here quick."_

"Right." Morgause hung up and grinned up at Jonas, who was staring at her oddly. "That's them." She stood and headed for the door. "Good work, Jonas."

He almost shivered at the compliment from her but she attempted to ignore it on her way out of the room and down the hall.

-

-

"I didn't kill anyone," Sophia clarified as soon as Morgause was seated across from her. Myror was standing in the corner. Sophia wore a leopard print jacket that barely reached below her breasts, a hot pink shirt, and leopard print pants, accented by small, pink, rose shaped earrings and pink lipstick.

"We're not saying you did," Morgause began. "We simply want to ask you a few questions."

"About Merlin, right?" When Morgause nodded, Sophia continued without any questions asked. "Look, Merlin was the poorest kid in the school. He constantly talked about some supernatural gift he supposedly had and never fought back, so of course everyone picked on him. We're rich, we get bored." She looked like she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "I may have joined in on the bullying, but I never _personally_ laid a finger on him."

Myror scoffed. "Yea right." Sophia made an offended noise in the back of her throat but Myror continued. "Where were you the night he went missing?" he said in an almost accusing tone of voice.

Sophia squirmed a bit in her seat and looked away from the two cops before her. "On a date. With no one in particular."

"Sophia," Morgause said in warning. "If we can't verify where you were, then you're a suspect. You'll go to jail, possibly for life."

"I…," Sophia trailed off. "It was…." She crossed her arms and turned back to look at Morgause and Myror again. "It was Valiant, alright? Valiant Mellor."

"Mellor?" Myror repeated. "But isn't that-"

"Yes. He's a professor at the school. So what?" she asked defiantly. "It's not like I'm one of his students or anything. Not anymore, at least."

Myror rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. Morgause blinked a few times and then shook her head a little bit. "Whatever," she said with a small wave of her hand. "We'll verify your alibi as soon as we can. But if you didn't kill Merlin, then who did, do you think?"

"How should I know?" Sophia complained lightly, arms still crossed. Morgause wondered if she knew it made her look more adorable than pissed off. "I only know about myself and-….wait a minute. Freya. Freya Donnelly."

"Donnelly?" Morgause repeated, looking through the papers in the file she had with her in the room.

Sophia nodded. "That girl was _always_ staring at Merlin. She was pining. If she asked him to date her and he turned her down, I wouldn't put it past her to have gone mad."

"Alright," Morgause nodded minutely. She looked back up at Sophia and gave the tiniest smile. "Thank you for your cooperation. If we have any more questions, we'll be sure to get in touch."

"I'm sure you will," Sophia quipped back shortly, but not angrily, as she stood. Myror opened the door for her and she gave a little nod before exiting the room completely.

"Well?" Myror asked, turning back to Morgause. "What do you think?"

"I think we need to get this Freya Donnelly in here and ask her what she knows about Merlin. Even if she isn't the killer, if she watched him as much as Sophia says, she may have noticed something everyone else missed."

"I'm on it. Can you handle Ms. Moffet alone?" he teased almost sarcastically.

Morgause rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I can handle a little college girl." She glanced at him from her seat. "But thanks for your concern," she finished just as sarcastically as he'd asked. He let out a huff of air, but was grinning as he left to fetch the newest suspect.

Only a minute later, Vivian was brought in and sat down in the seat across from Morgause. She looked so nervous she might faint. Her hair was what Morgause figured most would call 'woven golden tresses' instead of 'curly blonde hair.' There was no doubt that she was beautiful, more beautiful than Sophia.

"Hello, Vivian," Morgause greeted in an almost monotonous voice.

Vivian flinched. "H-hi," she murmured, her eyes flicking around the room. "Sorry….I'm…I've never been in a police station before….I'm kinda nervous." Her voice was light and high, in a somewhat childishly cute way.

Morgause smiled at her; a real smile. Vivan smiled nervously back, but she seemed a bit heartened by it and stopped twitching. "Relax. I'm just going to ask you a few questions."

"Alright. Sure." She gasped and smiled widely. "Are they about Arthur? I heard he's your number one suspect. Does that mean the questions are about him? Cause I know _all_ about Arthur." She placed her hands together in her lap and leaned forward a bit with a bright smile. "I love him." It was possibly the cutest thing Morgause had seen in a long time, though any woman this bouncy about a man tended to put her off at least a little bit.

"Um…Well I was going to ask if you thought Arthur killed Merlin," she admitted.

Vivian shook her head. "No," she stated resolutely, looking firmly set in her beliefs. "No, Arthur would never physically murder someone."

"Physically?" Morgause repeated curiously.

Vivian nodded, that same determined look still in her eyes. "Yea. See, he's very el…elo…he's really good with words. So if he wanted to, he could strike you down with his mouth…ooh….," she looked off dreamily for a moment before coming back to herself. "Anyway. So his words can be sharp but he's a gentle soul." She placed her hands on the table in front of herself gently.

"Right," Morgause murmured, looking down at the file in front of her for a split moment before looking back up at Vivian. "What do you know about Merlin Emrys-"

"Oh," Vivian scoffed, her expression scathing. "The boy was dirt. _Dirt_. Peasants such as him and his friends shouldn't be allowed into Camelot University. It's supposed to be a school for the privileged, yet him and his two _hobo_ friends dirty the school grounds with their stench and their poverty."

Morgause paused for a long moment, one in which Vivian stared at random bits of the ceiling. Well, she'd found out which of the two was most likely to have killed Merlin, that was for sure. Sophia didn't care, Vivian was acidic. Before Morgause could speak again, Vivian's face lit up and she stared at the dark haired detective with another awe sparked smile.

"Now, Arthur, on the other hand. He's perfect," she said joyfully. "His hair is like the sun spun into liquid gold and laid atop his head. His eyes sparkle like the most expensive diamond and shine blue like an endless, cloudless clear sky." She sighed. "Even his slightly crooked teeth make my heart twitter."

'Nothing on his actual personality then,' Morgause mused to herself. She shook her head a little bit and took a soft breath. "So, if Arthur didn't kill Merlin, as you are so certain he didn't…then who would your first guess be?"

Vivian's eyes widened a bit and she stared at Morgause with an expression on her face that was blank and yet a bit frightened for several moments. Then she shook her head and sat back away from the table and sank into her chair a bit, fiddling with the ends of her hair. "Nope," she shrugged, staring at her hair. "I don't have a clue. He wasn't worth my time, so I don't know who he could've pissed off so badly they'd murder him."

Morgause narrowed her eyes at Vivian suspiciously, but Vivian wasn't looking at her. In fact, she seemed to be pointedly ignoring Morgause. She was hiding something. "Are you sure?"

Vivian nodded, separating her hair into three parts and beginning to braid it. After a few minutes of silence in which Morgause tried to dissect Vivian's brain with only her eyes, Vivian finished her braid and looked up at the cop across the table with disinterest coating her features.

"Can I leave now?" she asked innocently. "Arthur's track training starts in a half an hour and I'd like to be there beforehand to wish him good luck."

Morgause wondered if Vivian realized that 'training' meant that he didn't really need her to wish him luck, but kept her mouth shut and simply nodded. She knew she would get no more information out of the girl. Vivian had hit a wall and wasn't about to tell what she knew. But Morgause would find out what she was hiding eventually. She always did.

-

-

"So," Morgana trailed off as she threw away her coffee cup. Morgause had gone to have coffee while she waited for Myror to get Freya and had decided to spend her small bit of free time with her beloved sister.

Morgause felt extremely attached to Morgana. After their father had died when Morgause was 8 and Morgana was 4, Morgana had been adopted into the Pendragon family, while Morgause was taken in by the Le Fay family. Luckily, Morgause had been able to track her sister down again and every now and again they went out for lunch or dinner. In fact, they'd been having dinner the Friday Merlin went missing.

"So," Morgause parroted, knowing Morgana would get to her point soon.

"How's Merlin's case coming?"

A smile crossed Morgause's face. She knew it would be something akin to that. They began walking through a small park off the beaten path of Camelot City's humming metropolis. Morgause's car was parked on the other side of the park.

"You know I really shouldn't tell you any details," Morgause teased lightly, sipping at the small amount of coffee left in her cup.

Morgana pushed her sister's shoulder softly with a matching smile. "Come on, sis. It's not like I haven't been helping the whole time anyway."

Morgause shrugged in agreement. "We've interviewed Sophia Grainger and Vivian Moffet. Nothing much on those fronts except that Sophia is apathetic and Vivian loves Arthur and hates Merlin."

"Maybe Vivian's your killer."

"Maybe," Morgause said with a short shake of her head. "Sophia's told us to ask Freya Donnelly." She stopped walking and turned to face Morgana. "What do you think about her?"

Morgana stopped too and looked up at the sky. "Freya….she's real quiet, shy, kinda skittish. She barely interacts with anyone at school so…I guess I never thought to question her. She doesn't seem the type to kill." The college student sister shrugged.

Morgause hummed softly for a brief moment and looked around at the people in the park as she thought. "My partner's picking her up as we speak for questioning." Her eyes caught on a familiar face sitting on a simple wooden bench about thirty feet behind Morgana.

It was Arthur Pendragon.

He was sitting on the bench with his elbows on his knees and his hands together in front of him. His left hand was messing with the ring on his right middle finger again, just as he had during his questioning. His face looked, from this angle, to be a strange sort of sad and vacant. Though his body was on the bench, he just didn't seem to be there in his own head. Morgause followed his line of vision and saw a mother playing with her son on a swing set. Was Arthur staring at them or was he off somewhere in his own head?

"Morgause?" Morgana asked in concern when her sister simply stared off into the distance for a few long minutes, bringing Morgause back to the subject at hand.

"Sorry, where you saying something?" Morgause asked, shaking herself. Morgana opened her mouth to speak just as Morgause's phone began to ring. "Oh, that's probably Myror saying he's got Freya at the station and is just waiting for me to begin the interrogation." She gave a sadish smile. "Sorry to cut our time together so short, but I've got to go."

Morgana shook her head. "No, don't worry about it. You're tracking down the person who killed a friend of mine. I don't mind at all."

-

-

"So, Freya Donnelly," Myror began, pacing the room slowly.

Freya was a petite young woman with beautifully curling dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She seemed meek and humble, yet stunning all at once. Looks alone told Morgause that there was little chance this girl would ever even _pinch_ someone, let alone _kill_ them. Still, she was a suspect, and looks can be deceiving.

"Yes," she agreed, as if she had to confirm her identity with them. She sounded petrified and kept flicking her eyes around the room to follow Myror's movements.

"We heard from one of your classmates that you had a crush on Merlin Emrys before he died," Myror continued. Morgause let him do this bit since she'd already interviewed two people.

Freya nodded shakily. "Yes…Merlin was the nicest man I'd ever met in my life. My…my father was…um…a bit of a drunkard, but I'm sure he cared. Then both my father and my mother were killed by a man in a park one night. After that, I only met with greedy and selfish men who wanted my family's money. Merlin treated me very kindly and always made sure to warn me of any danger he foresaw."

"So, you believe he really had this…_gift_," Myror asked, clearly not believing.

Freya nodded again, this time with a bit more conviction. Her voice was mildly stronger too. "Yes. More than almost anything in the whole world. He often warned me of an attack from a cousin or uncle before it happened, and I was able to stop them from hurting me or stealing my money. I," she looked down at the table shyly, "I loved Merlin….with all of my heart." Her tone was filled with sorrow.

"The classmate that told us of your crush said you spent much of your time watching Merlin," Morgause broke in. "Did you happen to see anything odd at school? Anyone?"

Freya looked up at Morgause, but didn't quite meet her eyes. "No. There was no one. I mean, well, obviously there were the upper class elite, but they always picked on him. It was almost a daily occurrence, so there's nothing strange about that." Myror moved to a point where he was almost behind Freya and she turned so she could see him fully. "The only thing odd that I noticed were the bags under Merlin's eyes."

"Bags?" Myror asked as if skeptic, even though they both knew that Merlin's friends had seen the same thing.

Freya made an affirmative noise. "He stopped sleeping, I heard. His face was a bit thinner, and the longer the week went on, the paler he got. I tried asking him about it once, but he just told me that he didn't have time for sleep, that the time was almost here. Then he walked away. That was on Wednesday afternoon." Before Myror or Morgana could ask, Freya continued. "I don't know what he meant, but it sounded like maybe….he'd foreseen something….maybe…I'm not sure."

Morgause blinked a few times in the short silence that followed and then looked down at her bag next to the table, in which was Merlin's journal of 'feelings.' It had said something about Arthur being in danger.

"We heard that maybe you'd asked Merlin out and then got mad he turned you down. What do you think of that?" Myror pushed on.

Freya's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "What?" She shook her head insistently. "No. No I would never." She looked between Morgause and Myror in a manner similar to a startled cat. "I've known since high school that nothing could ever happen between Merlin and me. I don't mind. I can still love him even if he'll never love me back. I'm ok with it, really. Besides that, I'm too shy to ever tell him, so no…that could never be true."

Morgause's ear pricked and she cast a highly interested look at Freya across the table. "What do you mean he'll never love you back?" she began, entwining her fingers on the table top. "You're beautiful. I'm sure there's some chance for you."

Myror gave Morgause a shocked look, like he couldn't believe she was about to start having a 'girl talk' during an interrogation, but Freya spoke before he could. "No. You've misunderstood. Merlin's told me before that I'm beautiful. He's given me plenty of compliments and been the best man ever. The reason there's no hope for me is because Merlin isn't interested in women." She swallowed hard. "Merlin's gay…Detective."

Morgause's eyes widened at the same time Myror's did, but not for the same reason. Myror, who focused on clues and physical evidence, was simply shocked because he hadn't had a single inkling that Merlin might be gay. Morgause's eyes were wide because everything suddenly made sense.

The blonde student that she'd seen running away when they'd told Guinevere Merlin was dead was Arthur. The ring on Arthur's finger and the ring on a golden chain around Merlin's neck in the photo on the mantel were a pair. Arthur's aloof behavior when they first pulled him in for questioning wasn't because he didn't care, he was trying to hold it together. And Arthur had been so interested in knowing what they learned on the case and he supported Merlin even though he picked on him. It was….it was so elaborate.

"Thank you….Ms. Donnelly…," Morgause managed to get out. "I think that's all we need from you for now."

Freya inclined her head nervously, obviously confused as to Morgause's suddenly soft tone of voice. "But…Ma'am….I think…," Freya mumbled, then spoke a bit louder. "Ms. La Fey?"

"Hm?" Morgause's vision cleared and she actually looked at Freya before her.

"I think I…saw…Merlin's murder."

"What?" Myror interrupted, coming up and nearly slamming his hands on the table in his surprise. "But you said you didn't see anything."

"I didn't see anything odd at school," she assured him. "It's just…about…the Friday that Merlin went missing, I went for a walk down by White River. You see, my house is on the river side and I like to go walking under the stars." She cleared her throat softly. "Well, I was…walking and I heard a strange noise…Like a crash."

Morgause and Myror gave her their complete attention.

"It came from the other side of the river, and when I looked over…well…something was falling down the embankment and someone was running after it. I couldn't really see who it was because the headlights were shining in my eyes." She paused and then corrected herself. "Well, one headlight. One of them was broken."

Myror and Morgause exchanged a look. Freya looked between them for a moment before continuing again.

"The…the girl who ran down the embankment after whatever fell-"

"Girl?" Myror interrupted. Freya nodded. "How do you know it was a girl?"

"She yelled," Freya explained. "She sounded really upset, so I figured whatever had fallen down to the river had broken and maybe it was really important to her or really expensive. She seemed to be kicking it a lot too. Then…When I heard Merlin was dead…and that he had been found in White River…and I kept thinking about it and all I keep thinking is that maybe I saw him being killed and I did nothing to stop it!" She finished hysterically. Tears began to cascade down her face in rivers and Morgause grabbed some tissues from her bag and handed them to her, but Freya just laid them on the table and instead pressed her hands to her eyes and tried to stop crying.

"Well…Ms. Donnelly…Freya," Morgause tried carefully and softly. Freya managed to stem her tears enough to peek over her hands at the detective. "Actually…Merlin…He was hit by a car, and we think it was on Dackling Road, by White River." She took a deep breath. "There were also wounds…from a woman's dress shoe….," she trailed off, but Freya knew what was being implied.

"Oh god….I really did see it, didn't I?" she gasped out. She was beginning to shake terribly and Morgause got up, walked around the table, and placed her hands on Freya's shoulders. "It's all my fault. It is…"

"No," Morgause whispered. "No, Freya, you've done a world of good," she assured the frantic woman. Freya hiccuped once and kept weeping. "Merlin was dead before he hit the ground," she half-lied. "There was nothing you could have done at the time, Freya, but right now, today, in this room….you've likely given us just what we need to catch the killer."

Freya's sobs dulled just a bit and she regarded Morgause in disbelief, both of her cheeks well saturated with tears. "W-what?"

Morgause nodded and smiled. "Yep. You've just told us the exact events of the murder. You cleared up any doubts we had about the killer's profile. Thanks to you, I'm sure we'll have the case solved in no time."

Freya couldn't stop her tears and she kept hiccuping with the effort to keep calm and quiet. When Morgause was finished, she let her tears fall freely again, but this time some of them were from relief.

Myror escorted her out and then stood to Morgause's left with his palms flat on the table. "What was that, Morgause?" he demanded in a soft but obviously upset voice. "You lied to her."

"Myror," Morgause breathed out as she turned to look at her partner. "Don't you get it? Arthur didn't kill him."

"What?" he asked. "What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about how you just told Freya that she'd given us the key to solving this murder!" He was beginning to worry over her mental health.

"It's obvious," Morgause continued, ignoring Myror altogether. "Obvious and yet brilliantly concealed." She shook her head. "Merlin and Arthur were a couple….I need to speak with Arthur again, can you get him in here today?"

Myror shook his head and pushed off the table. "I don't understand you, but if you think talking to him again on a possible relationship will get us the killer, then go right ahead. Anything to help Ms. Donnelly escape your lie."

Morgause serenely shook her head. "But I didn't lie," she said cryptically, but refused to answer when Myror asked about it, so he just left in a huff.

-

-

Morgause never left the interrogation room. She stayed there as Myror went out to pick up Arthur Pendragon from track practice. Vivian was not going to be happy. But no, she had much more important things to do and she didn't need to move to accomplish them.

Pulling the journal out of her bag, Morgause flipped open to the last page she'd read the night before. _"I had a dream last night about the terrible feeling about Arthur. It was dark outside and I saw Arthur's house. I could see Arthur at his desk by his bedroom window. There was a gun. I'm not sure what kind of gun. I might look into that later. I think Arthur's going to be shot in his house."_

Gun? Why hadn't she questioned that before? There had been no gun at the scene, and Freya hadn't mentioned a gun either.

"_The dream came back again last night. Arthur was sitting at his desk in his room, looking just as he did at school. There's a car out front and it's not Arthur's. I see the gun in the passenger seat and then the doorbell being rung. Arthur's father answers the door and then Arthur comes downstairs. Before he's even to the door, the gun goes off. That's when I woke up. I'll try to see more today when I don't have class. I get the feeling I'm running out of time."_

She read through the quick notes Merlin jotted about his attempts to see the event without sleeping, something he'd never done before and how it was draining him to see. "It wasn't that he wasn't sleeping," she murmured to herself. "He was draining himself trying to save his boyfriend."

"_Tonight's dream was terrible. It's four a.m. and I'm up earlier than ever, but the dream moved faster this time. I see Arthur in his room, with a phone to his ear, and the gun. But this time I saw a very feminine hand pull the gun from the passenger seat and there are tears on her cheeks, but I can't see her whole face. I can tell she's really mad and yet depressed at the same time. She walks up to the door and rings the bell. Arthur's father answers the door and smiles at the woman before calling for Arthur, so she must be a friend of the family. One of the rich girls then? She was definitely a close acquaintance._

_Arthur's face turns sour the moment before she takes the gun from her purse and shoots him. But it isn't just once. She empties her gun into his chest and there's blood absolutely everywhere."_ The handwriting was really messy here and Morgause had no doubt that this was hard for Merlin to even consider_. "I've never seen anything so horrible. He's on the ground gasping for air and blood bubbles out of his mouth and his baby blue shirt is completely red with the amount of blood coming from his chest and his fingers twitch and he convulses and then he just stops. Everything stops. I only woke up that time because I'd stopped breathing altogether._

_I have to figure out which of Arthur's friends is going to kill him. I couldn't handle it if he died."_

Thursday morning reported no knew details, just Merlin's deteriorating psyche at having to watch Arthur being killed brutally every night. Friday, however, was a different story.

"_Arthur told me yesterday to stay home today and get some rest,"_ was the first thing that caught her. If Merlin didn't go to school, then how had Arthur seen Merlin on Friday? _"I slept until almost noon and I'm glad I did because I know who's going to kill Arthur now. I can't believe I couldn't guess it. It was so obvious! Now all that's left to do is stop her. I'll stop her. I can stop it from happening this time. I'll save Arthur. I will."_

It had been messily and hastily scribbled into the journal, almost like it was an afterthought. Sadly, that afterthought hadn't included the actual name of the killer and Morgause groaned. At least now she had some idea why Merlin had been murdered. He'd called the would-be killer out on their intent and they'd killed him for it. But that meant that Arthur was still in danger.

"Mr. Pendragon for you," Myror announced a micro-moment later. Morgause calmly turned her head as Arthur walked in, as if the sudden entrance hadn't startled her.

Now that she knew (or was pretty sure she knew) about his relationship with Merlin, Morgause couldn't stop the frown that slipped on her face or the way her heart was pulling for him. "Thank you. I'd like to speak with him alone, if you don't mind," she told her partner.

Myror scoffed, clearly upset by her lack of cooperation, and left the room. Arthur sat down across from her cautiously and gave her a curious look. "What did you want to see me for?" he asked, voice just as smooth as she remembered from the school.

Morgause didn't rush a bit as she pushed Merlin's journal aside, noting how Arthur's eyes followed it and widened when he realized what it was, and then set Merlin's folder on the table. She flipped open to the picture of Merlin they had and pointed to his chest. "Arthur, what is right here?"

Arthur frowned. "In the picture?" She nodded and he looked down at the image. "Um…Merlin's chest? His shirt?" His right hand curled in on itself and Morgause noticed.

"No, Arthur. Right here is something that Merlin made sure no one ever saw but treasured. It is something his mother bought him a chain for two Christmas's ago. It is the one thing that I believe will link Merlin's killer to him because it is the one thing we didn't find on him when his body was found." She paused to take a breath and then continued with, "It is also around your right ring finger."

Arthur's mouth dropped open. "My ring? Wait. Are you saying me having a ring makes me the killer? I thought we already went through this. I'm not-"

"No, Arthur," Morgause interrupted before Arthur could get too hysterical. "No, yours is the match to the one that is missing, but it is the same thing. A simple golden ring." She folded her hands in front of her on the table. "It's brilliant. You're rich and are known to wear manly jewelry, so a ring on your finger, as long as it isn't your wedding finger, wouldn't be questioned. And Merlin's would be out of sight, so no one would ever question him either. It's amazing how well you kept it a secret, this relationship you two had."

Arthur stared hard at her for ten whole seconds, Morgause counted, before a tiny smirk quirked the edges of his lips. "You're something else," he complimented. His eyes wandered down to his right hand and his smirk became a tiny smile. "You're right. We were together and hiding it. Merlin knew that my father abhors homosexuals, so he came up with everything we needed to do to keep it a secret. He even hid his sexuality so that I wouldn't have to pick on him for something I was guilty of too." Arthur's smile turned fond. "He was brilliant."

Morgause stared for a moment. "How long were you a couple?"

Arthur glanced up at her before looking down at the ring again. "Eight years."

"Eight? But…that means…"

"Yea," Arthur interrupted. "Freshman year in high school." He looked her in the eyes, boldness and care written through his eyes. He loved Merlin and now, with Morgause, he wasn't afraid to hide it. "You see, after Merlin saved my life…I couldn't stop noticing him. I went from hating him to being fascinated by him. Just before Christmas break, I pulled him aside and told him about how I kept thinking about him and dreaming about him. He got this big grin on his face and told me that it took me long enough." Arthur let out a dry laugh. "After that, I spent Christmas break with Merlin and his uncle. Christmas Day we spent in Ealdor with his mom and Merlin told me how we were going to hide my new found sexuality from my father. The plan was to tell him when I moved out, so that I would be self sufficient and if my father wanted to break ties with me, then he could.

"At school, we snuck kisses in empty classrooms and bathrooms, and left cutsie notes in each other's lockers like secret admirers." Arthur seemed to be radiating a 'go ahead and laugh, I don't care' attitude. Morgause stayed silent. "We went on dates to mom and pop restaurants that no one else we knew would go to and took walks in little parks."

"Drake Park," Morgause interjected. Arthur raised an eyebrow and she explained herself. "I went on a walk with my sister there today and saw you sitting on a bench."

Arthur nodded. "Yea. It's a park my father pretty much paid to have built but doesn't care about. He only did it for the press that said he was a high ranking police official that didn't care about the city. It won him the position he holds today." The blond college student shrugged offhandedly.

Morgause waited a bit to make sure Arthur was done talking about his father before posing her next question. "So what happened after high school?"

Arthur's eyes went unfocused for the briefest of moments. "The rings were a graduation present from Merlin. He'd saved every penny he earned during high school in order to buy them. I keep wondering if maybe…he'd known we were going to be together all this time. He never seemed worried that I was going to leave him, but he was worried about everything else." He shook his head. "Merlin could have been accepted anywhere, but he chose the college my father had chosen for me so that we could be together. Did you know he stayed at the University even after he had enough credits for his Bachelors? He's a genius, so he finished all his classes off really fast and then took superfluous classes while he waited for me to catch up so we could graduate at the same time." His face twitched briefly. "He should've graduated last Spring. At least then he'd have…"

Arthur stopped talking abruptly and took a few deep breaths. Morgause waited patiently for him to get a hold of himself again. It took only about a minute for him to breathe normally again and to give Morgause a nod, letting her know he was ready. She pulled the notebook over and laid it out between them, shut. Arthur looked at it like it held all the secrets in the world and Morgause began to realize that Merlin had never let Arthur look inside.

"Arthur," she began. "You know what this is?" He nodded swiftly, his eyes fixed on the book in front of him. "My partner found this in Merlin's room when he was searching for clues as to who might have killed him. Sadly, he has a tendency to look partway through things and decide from there how useful an item is to the case. Luckily, he thought this one was important enough to give to me, and I've read every word in it." She opened to the page where Merlin first mentioned the feeling about Arthur. "A month ago Merlin mentioned a terrible feeling he had concerning you."

"Yea," Arthur nodded. "You told me that at the school, remember?" His eyes were skimming the words on the page.

"Yes, I did. But I hadn't finished reading at that point. The truth is that Merlin didn't simply feel something terrible, he personally saw it. He wrote about a dream he had repeatedly, one which became clearer and more gruesome every time he had it." She paused, looked down at the page, and then back up at Arthur. "What were you wearing the Friday he went missing?"

"What?"

"The night Merlin went missing. What were you wearing?" she reiterated.

"Um…," Arthur managed to articulate. He closed his eyes, thinking. "Blue jeans and a light blue t-shirt, why?" he asked as his eyes came open.

Morgause made a 'hmm' noise. "I think, based on the high possibility that Merlin actually was able to tell the future…that you were supposed to die that Friday."

Arthur blanched. "What?"

Morgause turned the page to Wednesday's entry and began to read. "Tonight's dream was terrible. It's four a.m. and I'm up earlier than ever, but the dream moved faster this time. I see Arthur in his room, with a phone to his ear, and the gun. But this time I saw a very feminine hand pull the gun from the passenger seat and there are tears on her cheeks, but I can't see her whole face…..She walks up to the door and rings the bell." Morgause skips a bit and continues. She doesn't want Arthur searching for his own killer after all, so she'd best not give him any clues. "Arthur's face turns sour the moment before she takes the gun from her purse and shoots him. But it isn't just once. She empties her gun into his chest and there's blood absolutely everywhere. I've never seen anything so horrible. He's on the ground gasping for air and blood bubbles out of his mouth and his baby blue shirt is completely red with the amount of blood coming from his chest and his fingers twitch and he convulses and then he just stops. Everything stops."

When Morgause looked up at Arthur, he was a mess of emotions. Shock, fear, love, sorrow, and sickness were warring over his face and his body was beginning to shake from it all. "I was…" He shut his eyes. "Dammit."

-

* * *

-

Only one chapter to go. Sorry this one took so long, I lost track of how many days had passed since posting Chapter 1. ;;;


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

When Morgause looked up at Arthur, he was a mess of emotions. Shock, fear, love, sorrow, and sickness were warring over his face and his body was beginning to shake from it all. "I was…" He shut his eyes. "Dammit." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone. His eyes grew wet as he stared at it.

"What is it?" Morgause asked. What did his phone have to do with anything?

Arthur wiped his left hand across his eyes and took a deep breath. "Merlin was always trying to change what he felt was coming. He wanted to save _everyone _from the trouble he knew was coming. I kept telling him to stop, that it….that it was going to get him killed one day." He paused for a moment and composed himself again. "Friday, he left me a message while I was at work. I didn't get it until almost nine that night and I keep thinking that…if I'd gotten it sooner, maybe I could've saved him."

He quickly dialed his voice mail and a prerecorded female voice said, over speaker phone, _"You have...three…old messages….First message…"_

Merlin's voice drifted out next. _"Hey Arthur, it's me! It's twelve forty-two in the afternoon and you're in class, but I couldn't wait. You're twenty-two! Congratulations and Happy Birthday! How about we meet up at the Classic Café tonight and maybe…have our own celebration?"_ he asked suggestively. _"Anyways, call me back as soon as you can and let me know what your plans are. I love you, bye."_

Arthur didn't flinch at the contents of the message, but he went still.

_"Next message….,"_ the woman's voice chimed.

_"You are the most amazing man in the world, Arthur Pendragon."_ Merlin's voice was somber and yet comforting and full of a sense of truth. _"No matter what anyone says, you have to believe that. You're going to be a wonderful athlete and support us in the Olympics one day. You'll win a hundred medals and be an inspiration to kids the world over. And not only because of your accomplishments on the track, but because you have a kind heart, the kindest I've ever known, and you know how people should be treated regardless of their lot in life."_ There was a momentary pause and then Merlin's voice came back, a bit more hesitant than before. _"I just…I wanted you to know, is all."_ And then he hung up.

Morgause purposefully stared intently at the phone, so that if Arthur needed to show an emotion, he wouldn't be afraid to just because she was there. That had sounded like something to say after someone has had a particularly dreadful day or gone through something horrible. Maybe Uther and Arthur had gotten into a fight?

_"Next Message….,"_ the phone woman announced and Arthur pushed the phone a bit closer to Morgause so she wouldn't miss a word.

_"Arthur, you know that feeling I've been getting lately?"_ His voice was soft, contemplative. Morgause wondered at what moment on Friday Merlin had made this message. _"I never told you this, but it wasn't just a feeling. I've actually seen it in my dreams. It terrified me, to the core, but it doesn't anymore….because I can stop it. I know you tell me not to try because I always fail, every time, but this time I know I can do it. Anyways…I love you. Just in case, I want you to know. I love you. More than the whole world, I do. I wouldn't change a moment of our time together, because it was perfect. It really was….Now I've got to go. Bye. I love you. Bugger, I've said that already. Whatever. Bye."_

Morgause's lips quirked at the end, but then quickly fell back into a frown. Merlin had sent Arthur a message in case he failed to save him….Then Arthur wasn't on the phone in the vision, he was checking his voice mail. So if Merlin only knew what the dream told him about the murder, then he was probably right outside when Arthur got that message and….and he died just down the street from Arthur's house after saving his boyfriend's life.

Silence reigned in the room after the message ended and the woman finished telling Arthur that there were no more messages. They were both thinking. Should Morgause tell Arthur what she thought had happened?

"I didn't-" Arthur stopped abruptly. He took a deep breath and started again. "I should've gone to his house after school. I should've…." A tear slid down from his right eye and he covered his face with his hands and leaned his elbows on the table. "What should I….I can't…."

"I think," Morgause started softly, gently, "Merlin would want you to stay strong and live on. He saved your life because he loved you and he didn't want you to die. You could live for him."

Arthur looked at her through his fingers and then roughly wiped his face of tears. He inhaled sharply and shook his head. "You're right. Right."

-

-

…_.13 days since disappearance…._

When Myror entered Morgause's office the next morning, he was shocked to see her standing by her window with dried tear tracks lining her cheeks.

"Wow," he announced himself and she jumped in place. "I've never seen you cry before. What happened?"

Morgause hurriedly wiped her face of the tracks and inhaled deeply. "It's nothing." Myror raised an eyebrow and she sighed. "Fine. It's just…I keep thinking about how much Merlin and Arthur must have loved each other. Did you know they were dating for _eight years_?" She looked away from Myror and around her office slowly. "All this time and still, no one knew about it. They had everything planned out until they could be together forever, except this."

"Death catches everyone by surprise," Myror said in a soft, but in no way tender, tone of voice. There was a moment of silence that lasted several seconds and then he coughed and pulled Morgause's attention back to him. "So, while you were having your heart to heart with suspect number one, I went and asked a few questions around with some of the richest students at Camelot University. I even made some house calls," he boasted. "According to two of the more financially well-off students, Edwin Muirden and Nimueh Afanc, the only real upset at school the week Merlin went missing was when Arthur 'dissed and dismissed' Vivian Moffett."

"What do you mean?" Morgause asked, taking a step closer to Myror.

"Apparently, Ms. Moffett confessed to loving Arthur more than air and asked to date him." Morgause snorted softly. "But Mr. Golden Boy flat out refused. Quoting Mr. Muirden, he said, 'You are nothing but a stalker cow. I would sooner date my father than you.' " He kept his eyes fixed on Morgause's. "Ms. Afanc said Ms. Moffett was distraught. I don't know about you, but I'd call that motive to kill your precious Arthur Pendragon. So I looked up what kind of car Ms. Moffett drives. You know what? She drove a red 2001 Chevy Corvette until about two weeks ago, when she bought a black 2009 Maserati GranCabrio with daddy's credit card." He seemed proud of himself.

Morgause's eyes lit up. "Myror, that's it. That's the missing link. Arthur publicly humiliated Vivian, who is obsessed with him. She decides to kill him for it. If she can't have him, then no one can. Merlin felt it coming, saw it. He went to Arthur's house to stop it and Vivian somehow realized they were dating. Freya said she heard an angry shout. Vivian must've been livid to know that a man had stolen her perfect guy from her. Mad enough to kill." She narrowed her eyes. "Mad enough…."

"What?" Myror asked when she didn't finish.

"Myror, if you were obsessed with someone and they humiliated you, even if someone interfered at first, you would eventually go back and kill your original target, right?" Morguase asked rhetorically. "She doesn't seem like the typical killing type, so maybe she got scared after she killed Merlin. Or maybe she's just waiting for all of this to boil down. But the point is, she will eventually kill Arthur for the humiliation and rejection he gave her."

"So, you're saying you think Vivian is planning on killing Arthur sometime soon?" Myror asked, suddenly tense.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Myror, do we have enough to convict Vivian Moffett of murder?" she asked.

"If we can find the car, we can say she hit him. Ms. Donnelly is a witness to it, so she could testify what she knows. That notebook of Emrys's is useless, a jury will never accept that. And we have a motive." He paused briefly. "People have been convicted on less. But if we could get her to confess, that would be best."

Morgause smirked. "I don't think that'll be hard. I went easy on her last time, thinking she was just a blonde bimbo, but this time I'll push her into the truth."

"Right. We'd best get to that school then."

-

-

"How're you doing?" Morgana asked Gwen as she popped a fry into her mouth.

Gwen shook her head. "I'm not sure….I keep waiting for him to call me or walk through the door, ya know?" She gave Morgana a pitiful look and Morgana felt her heart clench.

"I know, Gwen. But don't worry. I'm sure the cops are gonna find out what happened soon and his killer will be brought to justice," she assured her friend.

Gwen managed a tiny smile. "Thanks, Morgana. I hope so."

Lancelot frowned and wrapped an arm around Gwen's shoulders comfortingly. "What I don't understand," he said to Morgana, "is why anyone would want to kill Merlin in the first place. He was always so nice to everyone. He even managed to reform the drug dealers that lived next door to him, right?"

"Yea," Gwen smiled fondly. "Mary and Hengist Collins. I'm glad they cleaned up. They're nice people when they aren't high. Creepy, but nice."

"Remember Thanksgiving our senior year?" Morgana asked with a smile that was almost a laugh. "They gave Merlin and Gaius that _giant_ turkey and offered to get Merlin a tattoo and piercings."

Gwen laughed once. "Yea. I remember Merlin was so blown away. I would've been the same way if people that intense offered _me _a tattoo. I was worried that they were gonna hurt him if he said no, but they just accepted it and went home."

Lancelot smiled a bit. "I'm sad I missed this."

"Yea, well," Morgana said flippantly, "you went to East Lake High School, so you failed to see us in our crazy years," she teased. "Huh?"

Behind Gwen and Lancelot, Morgana saw Arthur walk purposefully over to Vivian Moffett. He looked upset but his face cleared into one of nonchalance just before he tapped Vivian on the shoulder. She turned to him and beamed up at him. He said something and motioned away and Vivian nodded enthusiastically and then they both left the student center.

"Hold up, guys. I gotta go check something out," Morgana excused herself and stood up from the table. "I'll see you later…You can have my fries, Gwen."

With that, Morgana hurried across the student center and out the doors after her adoptive brother. She barely caught sight of Arthur leading Vivian into the music building before they vanished inside the tinted doors and she had to run to catch up to them. Inside the music room, all the rooms were nearly sound proof so that all the musicians could practice at once without being a menace. From here, Morgana faintly caught a trumpet to her right, and somewhere to her left the string band was playing. She heard a door shut down the hall just in front of her (for there were three hallways that connected at these doors) and rushed onwards, checking every room via the small window in the doors.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about, hmm, Arthur?" she heard just before her head cleared the window of a door. She ducked down and pressed her ear to the door, listening.

A small sound that may have been Arthur scooting a chair across the room. "I want to know why you killed Merlin instead of me on Friday."

There was complete silence for several seconds. "Wh-wh-what?" Vivian stammered. "I didn't-"

"Don't lie to me, Vivian!" Arthur shouted. His voice was softer but just as fierce when he spoke next. "I know you were pissed when I rejected you in front of your friends. I know you were planning to shoot me on Friday of that week. I just don't know why you would kill Merlin instead."

Again, complete silence filled the room for a minute before Vivian said anything, and when she did it was really quiet and Morgana had to press her ear to the crack between the door and the door frame to hear it. "He had you."

"What?"

"He had _you_!" Vivian nearly shouted and Morgana heard a click. She'd heard that sound before, but where? "I've loved you since we were kids! I watched you, and learned all about you, and did everything I could to be perfect because you were perfect and I wanted to be your match. And then you rejected me, so meanly, in front of _everyone _who means _anything _in the world!"

"Put the gun down, Vivian," Arthur said soothingly.

That was it! The click was the sound a gun made when you took the safety off! Morgana's eyes widened. If she went in now, either one or both her and Arthur would be shot.

"No," Vivian refused. "I…," her voice was shaky and Morgana guessed that her entire body was too. "I can't _live _if you won't have me! When you rejected me, you killed me! So…I took daddy's gun from his desk drawer…and I drove over to your house…I planned on killing myself after I'd killed you. If we couldn't be together on Earth, we'd be together in death."

"Except that I would go to heaven and you would go to hell for killing me," Arthur informed her.

"No!" she yelled, and she sounded almost happy. "No, see…see that may have been true were you single. But you weren't! You see Arthur, I know your secret now." She took several loud breaths. "You know, he was telling the truth. This whole time, that little _shit_ was telling the truth. He really _could_ see the future." She laughed once. "He was waiting for me when I got to your house, you know? Just as I opened the car door to go up to your house, he was there. He told me, in detail, what my plan was. He knew why I was doing it, where I got the gun from, and he told me how many shots I planned to put in your chest and he said he could understand why I was doing it." She gave a bitter laugh. "No one could understand though. No one."

"Then he told me that he had to stop me. He said it wasn't right, what I was doing. Little freak actually grabbed the gun while it was pointed straight at him. I never intended to shoot him, and we fought over this gun. This one here. He, of course, won that fight. He's a lot stronger than he looks. But that's when I saw it, dearest." She took another deep breath. "That ring he wore around his neck. It fell out of his shirt while we were fighting over the gun. That's when I _knew_. I knew why you wouldn't have me." Morgana heard her whimper. "Because you were _fucking _that stupid psychic boy all along! _Admit it_!"

Morgana's eyes widened. He was what? Arthur and Merlin were…what?

"Alright," Arthur began in a soft voice. "Yes. Merlin and I were a couple. We were in love." Morgana covered her gasp with her hand. "Even so…," Arthur said, his tone suddenly hard, "that gave you no right to kill him."

"I didn't mean to!" Vivian yelled. "I was just mad. I was _really_ mad so I hit him with my car. I was still mad so I followed him when he fell down the river side thing and started kicking him. I kicked him until I was almost too tired to be angry....But...When I stopped kicking I realized he wasn't moving, and I got scared….so I threw him in the river, grabbed the gun, and ran."

"Vivian Moffett," Arthur nearly hissed out. "You'd best be glad I have any self control at all….because otherwise, _I swear to God_, you'd be joining him."

"How so, Arthur dearest?" Vivian asked, almost mockingly, "I have the gun here!"

"And if you shoot me, I don't care. I'd be with Merlin, you'd be in prison. Or they might kill you after they realize you've killed two people," Arthur admitted calmly. "You don't have to worry about me killing you though. I can't very well prove you're the killer if I kill you, can I?"

A hand touched Morgana's shoulder and she jumped, looking over her shoulder to see Morgause there. She had two cops and her partner Myror with her. "Shh," Morgause breathed out.

"You think you're going to get me to confess anyway? If you're dead, then you can't very well turn me in, can you?" Vivian asked. "I've already killed one person, Arthur, don't make me do it again. Just....promise me you'll never tell anyone about this and I'll let you go."

"I can't do that, Vivian," Arthur said apologetically. "You see….I've got it all on tape. Your drawn out, extensive confession."

"What-"

"Camelot police! Drop the gun!" Myror yelled when the door was swung open into the room. Arthur and Vivian were across the room from one another, Arthur leaning against a desk and Vivian just standing and holding the gun. In Arthur's left hand was a silver recorder.

Vivian dropped the gun in shock and held her hands up. Arthur put the recorder back in his pocket. As they were cuffing her, Myror sniffed pompously at her. "Vivian Moffett, you are under arrest for the murder of Merlin Emrys and for planning to kill Arthur Pendragon."

"What? I…wait no…," Vivian protested weakly.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used-" Myror was saying as they walked her out.

"Arthur?" Vivian asked. "Arthur! Help me!"

"Hold on," Arthur said. It wasn't loud, but it stopped Myror and Vivian from talking and everyone stopped moving.

"Arthur?" Morgana said questioningly. He wasn't seriously considering helping Vivian, was he? Had he been lying about being in love with Merlin?

Arthur took three steps so that he was directly in front of Vivian. She got a hopeful look in her eye and he frowned darkly, wrapping his hands around her neck and pulling out a golden chain with a golden ring on the end from inside her shirt. "This isn't yours," he almost hissed before he unhooked the chain and pulled it off of her.

Vivian freaked. "No! Stop! That's mine! I took it fair and square!"

"You killed Merlin and stole it from his dead body!" Arthur yelled with a glare that could kill.

Vivian shrank back from him. After a full five seconds of complete silence, Myror started up again. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say-"

Morgause shut the door once they were out, leaving only Morgana, Arthur, and herself in the room. Both women watched as Arthur stared down at the ring in his right hand, now laying directly against the one he wore himself. He closed his fingers over the necklace and shut his eyes without ever saying a word.

"Arthur," Morgause began softly. "We're going to need that for the case against Ms. Moffett, but I'll be sure it is returned to you as soon as the case is closed."

Arthur opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Of course." He reached into his left jacket pocket and pulled out the recorder he'd held earlier and handed it to Morgause. "This should help too. She confessed in detail how and why she killed Merlin. It should be enough to get her some prison time." Once Morgause had put the recorder into her own jacket pocket, she held out her hand and Arthur slowly reached out and dropped the ring into her hand.

Morgause gave him a sad smile. "Thank you." She carefully set the ring in her other pocket. "You're father would be proud if he knew."

Arthur scoffed. "He'd be upset that I interfered with case work when I knew he wasn't allowed to come within a hundred feet of it." He glared feebly at the wall to his right, away from both girls.

"But you were brilliant," Morgana complimented him softly, aware that this must be a hard time for Arthur. "You called her out on her crime, to her face when she had a gun. You even knew how to get her to confess."

Arthur gave a wry smirk. "It wasn't hard, Morgana. The woman was obsessed with me. I knew she wouldn't tell the cops, but if I asked she would tell me everything. So I did." His smirk fell and he looked away. "I was prepared for the gun…anything to prove she was guilty."

Morgause nodded. Arthur was prepared to die to get justice for his love's death. She would do the same for Morgana any day. Now it was all over. They had Vivian and everything they needed to put her behind bars for a long time.

With a short bow, Morgause removed herself from the room just as the tears began to fall and Morgana moved to wrap her arms around her adoptive brother's shaking form.

-

-

It was graduation day.

Morgause was there to see Morgana walk, but she also watched for Lancelot, Gwen, Freya, and Arthur too. Gwen graduated with her Bachelor's in Nursing, Lancelot with his Bachelor's in Elementary Education, Freya with her Bachelor's in Anthropology, Arthur with his Bachelor's in Sports and Fitness, and Morgana with her Bachelor's in Criminal Justice. And she watched for Merlin. They'd worked it out with the University to publicly announce Merlin's graduation at the ceremony, given he had quite a bit more credits than he needed to graduate with his Bachelor's in Psychology, and a minor degree in Philosophy, Religion, and Popular Culture. He really was a genius.

She saw Sophia, Edwin, and Nimueh in the crowd, but they weren't graduating yet. Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father and Morgause's boss, was there to watch Arthur and Morgana graduate. Merlin's mother, Hunith, was there with Will to accept Merlin's diploma.

After the ceremony was over and everyone was leaving or simply milling about, Morgause watched as Arthur found Hunith in the crowd. He hung his shoulders and said something to Hunith, and then Hunith practically lunged at Arthur and wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug. Several long moments later, Hunith pulled away and Arthur faced Will. They simply stared at one another for awhile, and then Will held out his hand to shake and Arthur accepted it. Figuring that now was as good a time as any, Morgause walked over and caught Arthur's attention.

"Oh, hello, Detective," Arthur greeted, releasing Will's hand.

"Hello, Arthur," Morgause responded. "How have you been doing?" It had been three weeks since the trial of Vivian Moffett. She was in jail now, and probably not doing very well.

He nodded. He placed his right hand over his chest, no doubt where the chain and ring were resting. "I'm doing." He let his hand fall back to his side, a determined glint in his eyes. "Actually…if you would excuse me." He nodded behind Morgause. She, Hunith, and Will all turned and saw that Uther Pendragon was standing a few feet away, waiting.

"Right. I'll see you around then," Morgause dismissed.

Arthur said goodbye to Hunith and nodded to Will and then walked steadfastly over to his father. "Father," he greeted. They were just close enough for Morgause to hear what they were saying. Will walked away, but Hunith stayed next to Morgause and listened in.

"Congratulations, Arthur," Uther said blandly. He gave Morgause a run for her money sometimes, and this was his _son _he was talking to.

"Father," Arthur repeated in a more apprehensive tone. "There's…There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Really?" He actually sounded mildly interested. "Well, out with it. You're a grown man now, don't be so cowardly."

Arthur visibly steeled himself and pulled a small piece of paper from a pocket in his robes, or from his jeans under the robes. "You should know who this is," he began as he handed the picture over to his father.

Uther glanced at the picture for a moment. "This is the student from the case you were a suspect in." He sounded a bit bitter. Morgause could understand that though. Uther's only real joy came from working a case and he'd been denied that because his son was involved. "What about him?" he asked, giving the picture back to Arthur.

"His name was Merlin Emrys and…well…Since ninth grade, he was my boyfriend." Arthur wasn't tiptoeing; he was just stating the facts and letting Uther do with that what he would. "I loved him. I still do. I will forever."

Uther tensed. His whole body went still and, even from this distance, Morgause saw his eyes go cold. He looked like someone furious who was doing everything they could to hold it in. In a place this public, a shouting contest between Uther and Arthur would not do well for Uther's public image, so any serious backlash would be held at bay until later.

"Is…that…so?" Uther ground out. "So for _eight years_ you purposefully went against everything I believe behind my back."

"No, father, I-" Arthur tried, but Uther wouldn't listen.

"_No_, Arthur," he said dismissively, holding up his left hand. "You are your own man now….and this is your life. Live it as you would like. You no longer live under my rules." With that, the head of police turned and stalked away, still silently seething.

Arthur watched him go quietly. He hadn't outright said it, but Arthur knew that he was no longer considered part of Uther's family. When his father was out of sight, Arthur let his shoulders droop and hung his head. He placed his right hand over the ring on his chest and just stood there, insignificant among all the crowds and all the other students in red robes. Morgause didn't move to comfort him. Instead, she took a step back and again simply watched as Hunith took that initiative and hurried over to wrap her arms around Arthur for the second time that day.

"It's alright, Arthur," Hunith assured him with tears lacing her eyelashes. "You'll _always _be welcome in _my _family."

Arthur wrapped his arms around Hunith in return and smiled. "Thanks, Hunith. That really means a lot."

Morgause smiled a tiny, content smile and turned to walk away. Another case closed.

-

Fin

* * *

-

Ok. I'm working on trying to write a bonus chapter that follows Merlin and Arthur's relationship up until the murder. I can't tell how long it'll be before that gets done, but I can pretty much promise that it'll get done eventually.

Final thoughts, comments, questions? Any questions need to be in a review that somehow lets me know how to contact you; either a signed review or one with your email in it. If you want to see a particular moment in Arthur and Merlin's relationship, let me know about that too and I'll see what I can do. No lemons though.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Preview

So….I started writing the "bonus chapter" and realized about 14 pages in that it was going to be quite a bit longer than I'd planned. My sister, who also writes on this name, told me to just make it a new story. So, the bonus chapter turned story is now posted on our profile. I've got three chapters written so far. It's called The Case of Merlin's Emrys: Merlin's Story.

Here's a preview!

-

-

"Don't get in the car. There's so much left to do. If you get in that car, it's all over before it can start."

The future is always changing.

Merlin knew this better than anyone. He felt the future the way most people felt objects and the wind. He knew when someone was going to do something; like when Cedric robbed a gas station. He knew the consequences of those actions; like how two kids looking at candy at that gas station would get hurt. He knew it all and he was tormented day in and day out by ignorant bullies for his ability.

He'd never seen the future before. He'd never seen the future until he saw Arthur Pendragon. Arthur Pendragon's future was Merlin's future and Merlin nearly cried the day he saw it in Arthur's eyes.

"You did that on purpose," Arthur accused.

"I had a feeling you had something you wanted to say to me."

"I want to be with you."


End file.
